SOME ECONOMIC INTERESTS 155 



probability is that there will always be a different relation be- 

 tween workingman and employer in the country from that which 

 obtains in the city. The relation will be more direct and per- 

 sonal. The employer will always feel his sense of obligation and 

 responsibility to the man whom he employs and to the man's 

 family. Persons do not starve to death in the open country. 



Some persons think that the farming of the future is still to be 

 performed on the family-plan, by which all members of the family 

 perform the labor, and whatever incidental help is employed 

 will become for the time a part of the family. This will probably 

 continue to be the rule. But we must face the fact, however, 

 that a necessary result of the organization of country life and 

 the specialization of its industries, that is now so much urged, 

 will be the production of a laboring class by itself. 



D. CHILD LABOR 

 RURAL CHILD LABOR 1 



JOHN M. GILLETTE 



IT has been the customary assumption that the child labor 

 evil is confined to our cities and manufacturing villages. Un- 

 doubtedly the more vigorous and unwarrantable conditions rel- 

 ative to youthful workers do entrench themselves in those places. 

 Another familiar assumption is that the child labor performed on 

 the farm is entirely wholesome and is therefore to be encouraged. 

 But it is largely the product of those who are ignorant of farm 

 life, or of those who have seen agriculture at a distance or in 

 certain favored regions. 



It can hardly be questioned that much of the work which farm 

 children do is a distinct advantage to them. Work which is 

 suited to the growing boy and girl is conducive to a better de- 

 velopment of body and mind. The chores about the house and 

 barn, and the lighter forms of labor which may be engaged in 

 outside of school hours are distinctly favorable to the estab- 



i Adapted from Child Labor Bulletin, No. I, p. 154. National Child 

 Labor Committee, New York. 



